Quick Facts

The Global Engagement Living Learning Community puts a global twist on the freshman experience at St. Edward's and life in Austin. We bring our diverse and thriving city into the classroom and extend the university experience into Austin and beyond. "Connecting the Global with the Local" is our motto.

In this LLC, you'll explore a variety of cultural and political topics in global contexts through your academic work and social engagement. Our range of seminars and extracurricular activities across the city offer students many opportunities to study and tackle diverse social issues first-hand. Whether it be by studying a foreign film, sampling global cuisine, or taking in an art exhibit in downtown Austin, students in this LLC will learn how a global perspective can help us tackle problems at the local level and vice-versa.

Apply to the Global Engagement LLC

When filling out the online housing application, select a bed in Basil Moreau Hall, Rooms 110–116, 201–216 and 301–316. Global Engagement STEM majors must select a bed on the third floor.

Fall 2018 Courses

The Art of Dissent: Literature, Film and Opposition Under and On Dictatorship

FSEM 1401 – The Art of Dissent: Literature, Film and Opposition Under and On Dictatorship
Faculty member teaching this course: Emma Woelk, PhD

Does art have political impact? Is literature a meaningful way to challenge oppressive governments? In this course, students will work primarily with literature and film to ask how these forms have been used as both pro-government propaganda and tools of resistance. Using materials from across the globe, from fascist regimes in Europe to military dictatorships in South America, we will explore the political power of art in the 20th century and ask how this power may best be harnessed today.

The Global Media Lens

Together, on our global campus, we will read, watch and listen to the news from countries around the world to gain a better understanding of the myriad laws and polices shaping it. We will work to gain a culturally specific understanding of the role media plays in all of our lives. We will consider how media, with its strengths and weaknesses, provides the lens through which we view one another. The course will include opportunities for experiential learning, such as visiting an Austin broadcast journalism newsroom and discussions with professional journalists both on and off campus. Students will be taught News Literacy skills designed to help them become thoughtful news consumers. Professor Heath was a professional journalist for twenty years, covering local, state and national politics. She brings her professional experience to the classroom.

Chicana Activism: Women’s Studies in a Global Context

Mexican American women, Chicanas, write and theorize about their experiences in the United States. The course will explore how Chicana feminists connect their U.S. experiences to the lives of people across the globe. Students will study Chicana feminist writing, film, art and online activism as a way of understanding the intersectionality of race, class, gender and sexualities. Students will learn how people work from within their own lives to enact social change and improve the world. Students will continue developing their own understanding of global systems that affect women’s lives by completing class assignments and participating in experiential learning. This course will also introduce students to Women’s Studies and Mexican American Studies topics.

Signature Events

Students in the Global Engagement LLC learn about other cultures — on campus and in Austin — through cultural food cooking demonstrations, trips to the Mexicarte Museum and viewing international films.